Advice needed: Geography, Sociology or Town Planning?

Hi forum users =]

I'm currently having trouble writing my Personal Statement as I cannot make a definate decision on which of the three above courses to choose.

The facts:

I've always enjoyed Geography and would be able to write most passionately about it on my PS, but have noticed that many Geography courses require background in the Sciences and I am far from Sciency! Meaning I have little hope of getting in to those. I prefer the Human side a lot more and would completely avoid the Pysical element if I could. Do any unis offer that choice?

Sociology struck me as a really interesting course on recent Open day visits, having never considered it before hand. The problem is I have absolutely no previous work experience linked to Sociology to put on my PS and no huge desire to go into social work after uni. Would this affect my chances of getting into the course?

With Town Planning, again it struck me as really interesting on Open Days and I've always been interested in urban regeneration etc, but I've found that not a great number of unis offer the course and am also worried that I won't have a great range of career options.

I was wondering if anyone could advise me on which of the three listed courses to do and if there's any unis in particular you would recommend for such.

Thanks for any help at all!

Reply 1

Flamin Nora

Sorry, I'm blatently bigging up my own uni, but Birmingham University doesn't require any sciences for its standard Geography course, just 1 A and 2 Bs (with the A in Geography of course). http://www.undergraduate.bham.ac.uk/coursefinder/science/geography-ba.shtml
In the first year you do do like 2 sciencey type modules, but they are really interesting - volcanoes and that. I like the fact that you are introduced to some of the physical side of Geography. I know of loads of Human Geographers who switched their degree to bsc because of the first year physical modules. Also, you only need to pass the first year anyway, it doesn't count towards your degree mark.
After that you can completely drop the science bits and choose to do entirely human modules and dissertation.
Oh yeah and I'm pretty sure Birmingham does a joint honours degree in Geography and town planning. If you don't want to commit yourself completely to town planning, there's also a great second year Geography module which is called 'towns and cities' which is all about regeneration etc. You can follow that up in the third year with more specific urban regeneration modules. http://www.undergraduate.bham.ac.uk/coursefinder/socsci/geography-urban-reg-planning.shtml

I also believe Reading University does a completely human Geography course. >> http://www.rdg.ac.uk/Study/ug/HumanGeographyBSc.aspx
Not sure why it's listed as a BSc though??

Also, Sheffield University >>> http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/prospectus/courseDetails.do?id=3796122010

That's all the unis I know of but I'm sure there are more out there with human geography courses.

Best of luck with your application :smile:

Reply 2

qwerty10

A degree in town planning offers very limited career prospects, thats what i've heared from many people. I know this because I was considering doing a town planning course, but instead decided on geography, its a much broader subject. Not sure about sociology though. Hope this has been helpful!

Reply 3

km31

I don't know much about town planning, but as the post above said it probably gives very limited options, so you'd have to be really sure that that is what you want to do with your life.
I think sociology would be interesting, but if you're not interested in social work, is it really going to get you anywhere?
I think if you are passionate about geography, and are thinking about going into something like town planning but not entirely sure yet, this would be your best bet. You'll enjoy the course and it will give you a wider range of options for after university. And i think that most universities do two geography degress, a Bsc or BA, so you'dbe able to choose to do the BA and there would not be much sciencey things in it probably, but im not entirely sure that's just what my geograhy teacher said happened way back when she went to uni.

basically just think about what career you want to do, and which of these will be most helpful in getting there - if you really can't decided on a career jsut yet, pick the one you think will enjoy the most :yes:

Reply 4

TheOneWho

A lot of universities offer only human geography degrees, do some research and you'll find them. Sociology is really broad, as is geography, so you would really need to look closely at the courses and see what sort of modules are offered.

Geography courses usually have some sort of social geography and urban geography involved, which will give you experience in both sociology and planning. And being a human geographer you'll end up using books from all different disciplines.

Town planning is a bit less broad, and if you want to do that then make sure your course is accredited by the RTPI. Lots of geographers go on to do a town planning postgraduate if you are still interested in it.

Reply 5

nikki_louise

if you dont want to do any physical geography then make sure you look at a BA in HUMAN GEOGRAPHY, dont just do BA in Geography as you will still have to do physical geography almost certainly in the first year. have a little research on the ucas website, i no that some univeristies do just offer human geography degree options so research. you could always bring in the town planning into the dissertation you do at the end of your third year or have a look to see if you could take some kind of module about town planning at a university, i had an option to take a house planning module which i will do next year (year 2).
at southampton i had to take an external module and i took it in sociology and it often looked at the same topics as in human geography but in relation to people and not place so if u really like sociology then see if you can take a module in it while doing a geography degree.
town planning is a bit limited in option so i would be careful with that.
You really need to start finding out in detail about the courses on offer and the modules you could take because you could follow all your ideas in one way or another,
hope that helps a bit, if you really like town planning have a look at master options. good luck

Reply 6

Charmer

Hi I was in a similar position to you I couldnt choose between geography on its own with town planning. I did some work experience with my local town council planning department and I would deffinately recommend it if you get the chance. I spoke to most of the staff and the majority did town planning or something similar as a postgrad and they recommended doing the same lots of employers will let you have a day off work to complete your degree and some will sponsor you throughout. If your worried about careers there is likely to be a demand for town planners in the next few years as the housing market picks up.

Reply 7

randomgeeza

Sociology or Geography defo

Reply 8

Mackem85

I know some people who have done geography undergrad degrees and then gone onto town planning at Masters level. Town planning is quite specialised, so if you do want to study this I would recommend it at masters level. Geography undergrad would give you more options post graduation.